The present invention provides an inexpensive collapsible disposable umbrella characterized by its simplicity of manufacture.
Conventional umbrellas normally require the mechanical assembly of many metal and plastic parts that are made to close mechanical and engineering tolerances. Because of this, conventional umbrellas can be costly and time consuming to manufacture. Moreover, many of the metal components of conventional umbrellas require special metal forming tools for manufacturing and costly time expenditures for assembly. The present invention is made entirely from inexpensive materials such as plastic or polyethylene which are easy to manufacture form and assemble.
Collapsible umbrellas disclosed by the prior art such as Epstein (U.S. Pat. No. 2,747,592) and Harrel (U.S. Pat. No. 3,844,301) include metallic parts and separately manufactured pieces that are snapped or wired together and have the plastic covering exposed to the elements. Such umbrellas are unnecessarily complicated by the addition of handle members which increase production costs.